Debates about the Rhodes statue at Oriel College with Zein

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2-4pm Friday 12 November 2021
Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics
University of Brighton

Debates about the Rhodes statue at Oriel College, University of Oxford: historical evidence, commission report, and the College’s response.

Zeinab Badawi and William Beinart

The statue of Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) was erected in 1911 on a new Oriel College building for which Rhodes donated money in his will.  Following the Rhodes Must Fall protests in Oxford in 2015-6, the College governing body decided to keep the statue in place; pressure from alumni was one important factor.  However, they changed their minds in July 2020, after the mass protests in Oxford associated with RMF and global Black Lives Matter movement that followed the murder of George Floyd. The College then publicly indicated an intention to move the statue and appointed a commission to advise on the arguments and processes involved.  Both speakers served on the commission.  However, despite majority support in the commission for this 2020 decision to move the statue, the College governing body changed its mind again in May 2021. The College has decided that it will be too expensive to start the process of applying for planning permission. The Rhodes Building (now called the High Street Building) is a grade 2* listed building which requires a complex process and government consent for any changes.  The government has indicated that it will not accede to such planning requests and prefers instead to ‘retain and explain’.  The College has decided that it should do the latter, with contextualisation both on the web and on site (now in place). This seminar addresses three issues relating to the Rhodes legacy at Oxford.  William Beinart will discuss briefly the historical evidence and arguments for moving the statue, as well as the College’s recent decision. Zeinab Badawi will discuss her experience of the commission and her views on the debate about the statue as well as initiatives to promote diversity and African Studies.

For further info, including the historical appendix to the commission report, visit the Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics blog: blogs.brighton.ac.uk/secp/2021/10/21/event-12-november-2021-debates-on-rhodes-zeinab-badawi-and-william-beinart/

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